Mumbai: Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday said India that Trump will see in 2020 will be different than what Carter, Clinton or even Obama saw.
Referring to US President Donald Trump's visit to the country, Ambani said India is much different than what it was during the visits of his predecessors Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, and pointed out that mobile connectivity was a key change.
Millions who came on the street to welcome Trump have their own personal experience of strong enough networks on their mobile phones, he said adding the construction of the world's biggest cricket stadium is an example of infrastructure being created.
"The stadium in terms of digital is better than any other place in the world," he said.
Ambani also said that India is at the cusp of becoming a “premier digital society”, and will be among the top three economies of the world.
In conversation with Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella at the Future Decoded CEO Summit here, he said the big change driving this transformation is the deepening of mobile networks which are working at a much faster pace than before.
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"It all kickstarted in 2014 when PM gave us the vision of Digital India... 380 million people have migrated to Jio's 4g technology," he said.
Pre-Jio, the data speed was 256 kbps; and post-Jio, it is 21 mbps, he pointed out.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we will be among the top three economies in the world,” Ambani said, adding that the only debate which can exist is whether it happens in five or in ten years.
We in India have the opportunity to become the premier digital society, he stated.
In the early days, it was Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys which drove technology which kick-started the financial and economic reforms, he said. "It was supercharged in 2014 when Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) gave us the vision of Digital India."
What followed was for everyone to see.
"I was privileged to play a very small role in it, in terms of with the launch of Jio," he said adding that prior to the launch of Jio in 2016, average internet access speed was 256 kbps and post Jio is now 21 mbps on mobile data in every single village in India.
"The pre-Jio, price of data in this country was between Rs 300 and 500 per GB. And for the poorest of poor people who use 2G, the prices were as high as Rs 10,000 a GB. Post Jio, the price is between Rs 12 and Rs 14 a GB," he said adding 380 million customers have migrated to 4G technology on Jio platform in the last three years.
"We just introduced UPI and did digitisation in December. We had 100 per cent growth and total UPI transactions in this country were Rs 2 lakh crore," he said. "We are accelerating and we are just at the beginning of this whole journey."
The richest Indian saw gaming as the next big gamechanger as it will be bigger than music, movies and TV shows all put together.
He said technology presents an opportunity to transform India.
"We in India have the opportunity to become the premier digital society," he stated. "The next generation will see a very different India than what you (Nadella) and I have grown up in."
(PTI Report)
